A WebQuest on the history and process of immigration to the United States, and the reasons and forces that influence people's decisions to immigrate. Each page has a question to answer, and a link to a site with information specific to...

Where did the American colonists get their ideas that lead to a revolution and a whole new kind of government? This lesson explores the Magna Carta, Mayflower Compact, English Bill of Rights, Cato's Letters, and Common Sense.

Students will try their hand at a simplified districting exercise and learn about the common gerrymandering practices of packing and cracking districts. Students then explore the media's traditional roles as gatekeeper, agenda-setter,...

Students learn about filibusters and how and why senators use them, then they take a look at how news coverage of a filibuster can be transformed through neutral, positive, or negative framing.

Students discover how presidents use executive orders to wield power and how the legislative and judicial branches support and challenge these measures.

Students learn the distinction between foreign and domestic policy and what role the executive branch plays in foreign policy and the primary tools it uses: foreign aid, the military, and treaties.

Learners learn how government and the economy are related and the difference between market, command, and mixed economies.

This lesson focuses on the relationship between money, banks, and lending in our economy.

Learners will learn about the midterm election, its role as a referendum on the presidency, and how a shift in party control impacts the legislative and executive branches.

Students learn the vocabulary and process of small claims court and have the chance to play plaintiff, defendant, judge, and jury in this simulation. The lesson is complete with witness statements, evidence, a trial script, and jury...

In this lesson, students learn the who, what, when, where, why, and how of the census. Students explore the importance of being informed and how the census impacts their communities.

Explore the evolution of voting rights in the United States.

In this overview activity, students learn about state government structure, functions, lawmaking, and relationship with local government.

This lesson teaches the basics about the market economy, including the relationships between consumers and producers, supply and demand, and profit and incentive. Students learn six traits of a market economy, compare the market economy...

n this lesson, learners learn what factors members of Congress consider when deciding whether to vote for a bill, including the powers given to Congress by the Constitution, what a member's constituents want, his or her political party's...

From the time Columbus first set foot in the New World, Europeans were fascinated with this new land. In this instructional activity, students learn about the Three Gs that drove them here- gold, God, and glory- and find out how these...

"The First American", Benjamin Franklin, is the only Founding Father that signed all three major documents that founded the United States of America. Learners explore the many roles he took during the founding of America.

Explore the ideas of Enlightenment thinker, Jean-Jacques Rousseau. His writings on natural and social freedom, the social contract, and democracy shaped the American system of government in a variety of ways.

Meet the Baron de Montesquieu, one of the great thinkers of the 18th century. He spent a lot of time thinking about how governments should be created and maintained. These ideas guided the Founding Fathers when they wrote the...

The Enlightenment was a period of time, starting around 1715, when people developed new ideas about human existence, including people's basic rights and the purpose of government. When our Founding Fathers created a government for the...

Covering everything from referendums to recalls, this instructional activity takes students to the voting booth and explains what they might see on a typical ballot.

Can the candidate who wins the majority of the popular votes miss out on being president? They can, and it's happened before.

As a new country, the United States experienced a lot of growing pains. Discover some of the citizen-led rebellions that occurred in the nation's first decades, and how the government grew to respond.

Use this infographic to find out how redistricting turns into gerrymandering, and how gerrymandering can negatively impact people in those districts.